Skiers and clients of winter resorts have one more obligation added from 14th December. To prevent the spread of COVID-19, each of them must show a negative result certificate of a test taken less than 72 hours in advance when checking in at hotels or boarding cable cars and ski lifts. “From Tuesday next week, we would like to operate our own testing sites in Tatranská Lomnica, Štrbské Pleso and Jasná. As for the High Tatras, it will be mobile containers, in Jasná, we are creating a testing site in one of the buildings in the area of Biela púť. The aim is to do our best to guarantee safe skiing adventures and winter holidays to our clients,” informed Juraj Chovaňák, the marketing director at TMR.
“It was not easy to arrange these testing sites. Related paperwork, containers, testing teams, tests, all this required a lot of effort so we are very happy that we have managed it within a relatively short time and our sites can help with the testing of skiers and mountain visitors,” added Dušan Slavkovský, the general manager of the Vysoké Tatry mountain resort. More details such as the opening times and individual locations are available on the resort websites: www.jasna.sk and www.vt.sk.
Although new testing sites will be established in the ski resorts, it is still recommended that people who plan to ski or to stay in the mountains get tested at the place of their permanent residence. “This has several advantages – they will not be held up by anything on the way to ski pistes or their hotel, can avoid potential queuing and if they are tested positively, they can solve the situation right away and at home, without having to deal with more travelling complications,” explained Igor Mráz, the general manager of TMR resorts in the region of Liptov. At the moment, hotel guests and skiers can use 6 testing sites at the foot of the High Tatras and 11 testing sites when travelling to Jasná from Liptov or Horehronie. Individual regional tourism organisations are helping to arrange more testing sites in tourist localities so that these could be available before Christmas holidays.
In addition to the obligation of showing negative results of COVID-19 tests taken less than 72 hours before, there are more precautions and rules that must be respected: safe distances, covered mouth and nose when travelling with cable cars and ski lifts, only 1 passenger or members of the same household per cable car, regular and frequent disinfection of objects and facilities, food and drinks in hotels offered only as room service or take away. At the moment, the following ski resorts are opened: Jasná (11 pistes), Štrbské Pleso (3 pistes), Tatranská Lomnica (5 pistes), the funicular between Starý Smokovec and Hrebienok, and the cable car between Skalnaté pleso and Mt Lomnický štít are operating as well. All hotels of the TMR hotels network in Jasná and the High Tatras are opened.
